SARATOGA SPRINGS – Gezora, who won the Prix de Diane – France’s Oaks – and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf during a highly productive, two-continent 2025 campaign, long has been aimed at the New York Stakes on Friday at Saratoga. It’s just that Chad Brown figured he’d be saddling the filly, not trying to beat her. Owner Peter Brant moved Gezora and several other horses out of Brown’s barn in mid-May, a couple weeks after the Brown-trained Kathynmarissa, who campaigns for other owners, beat Gezora in the Modesty Stakes. Gezora now resides in the Bill Mott stable. “She’s very straightforward, easy to train, no quirks that I know of,” Mott said. Mott has one very good chance to win his fourth New York – but Brown has four shots to win the Grade 1, $750,000 New York for a record fifth time. While Gezora’s gone, a legion of divisional reinforcements remains. Kathynmarissa heads the Brown-trained quartet, which also includes, in ascending post-position order, Portfolio Duration, Pretty Picture, and City Girl. Don’t count out any of them. The 1 3/16-mile New York drew four other entrants – Bellezza, Speed Shopper, Laurelin, and Cankoura. :: DRF Belmont Stakes Packages: Save big on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. While Mott just is getting to know Gezora, he knows how to read past-performance lines. Gezora’s two major wins came over 1 5/16 and 1 3/8 miles, her highly rated second in the Prix Vermeille at 1 1/2 miles. “If you were going to make an observation on paper – is a mile and three-sixteenths her distance? Maybe she prefers to go farther,” Mott said. John Velazquez rides Gezora for the first time. The pair will break from post 9. Gezora does her best work at the end of races and should drop to the tail of the field. That’s how Kathynmarissa won the 1 1/8-mile Modesty – though not by design. “She was supposed to be on the lead. She actually missed the break and still won,” Brown said. The Modesty marked Kathynmarissa’s first race since August and first graded win, but that was no major upset. Kathynmarissa went off 3-1 second choice, and at her earlier peak, before Brown began training her, she finished a good second behind champion She Feels Pretty going 1 1/4 miles in the Grade 1 American Oaks. A half-furlong less Friday does her no harm, and she won well on this course last summer. “She’s got five weeks between starts, and all she has to do is run the same race back to be competitive,” Brown said. “I didn’t have her fully cranked for that race.” Flavien Prat, who rode Gezora in the Modesty, has a return call on Portfolio Duration in the New York. Lightly raced and improving, Portfolio Duration has shown something in all four of her races and found her best stride just slightly too late to get up May 2 in Distaff Turf Mile, her stakes debut. By Night of Thunder, Portfolio Duration runs farther than 1 1/16 miles for the first time. Brown has her pegged as an ideal candidate for the 1 1/8-mile Diana in July. “The big question mark for her is getting the mile and three-sixteenths. I know a mile is too sharp. She’s drawn cozy on the rail, and stretching out she’s going to be very forward, if not on the lead,” Brown said. Four-year-old Pretty Picture has won three non-stakes starts and has gone 0 for 2 in stakes, but don’t hold that against her. She had a bad trip when third in the Sands Point in October and came back Nov. 28 with a career best, closing strongly and gaining fast on victorious Lush Lips, a top-class middle-distance filly, in the Mrs. Revere at Churchill Downs. Pretty Picture had to work winning a Keeneland second-level allowance in April, her first race back from a winter break, but the Brazilian import she beat has credentials, the race a mere tune-up served for what Brown feels is an ideal spot. “Early this winter, I circled this race. How do I get this particular horse to the New York,” Brown said. Five-year-old City Girl made her first six starts at provincial French racecourses and came to Brown as a 3-year-old but didn’t start until February. Relaxing much better than in her first two outings, City Girl won the Grade 3 Beaugay at Aqueduct. “I’m so proud of my team with her. This filly was just hampered by setback after setback,” Brown said. “We have her in a window now where she looks fabulous and she’s showing that turn of foot we knew she had.” Laurelin started her career with five wins, the last of them going this distance in the Saratoga Oaks Invitational. She’s done little wrong in three subsequent defeats and probably got the wrong trip when City Girl ran her down in the Beaugay. “I wasn’t necessarily planning on running in this race, but she’s supposed to run in this race,” trainer Graham Motion said. “In theory, the race should have moved her forward.” France shipper Cankoura finished third in the Prix de Diane, mowed down by Gezora in the final furlong. She’s not top class and generally has beaten soft competition in her wins, but she was over the top in the Group 1 Jean Romanet, her 2025 finale, and her May 1 comeback run served as a lesson as much as a race. Often forwardly placed, Cankoura was hard held well off the gallop before being given her head and coming with a good kick. She’s not impossible. Bellezza and Speed Shopper, both proven three-turn mares over longer distances, met March 28 in the 1 1/2-mile Orchid at Gulfstream. Bellezza was sixth as the favorite, Speed Shopper third with compromising trouble. Bellezza has not started since and might have been bothered by sore feet in the Orchid, trainer Miguel Clement said. Speed Shopper has continued improving for trainer Will Walden, who said she put in a dazzling work May 30. Speed Shopper won twice over lesser rivals last summer at Saratoga. Friday, she must deal with one Mott and four Browns. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.